Didn't know how i would go about searching for this on the forums, so i decided to ask here first and then to just browse.

I am a n00b to the xbox scene, but i've been involved in the game mod scene since 1997, so you can talk to me in semi-technical terms....i've tried to do some research here, but a lot of the FAQs and tuts availible here seem outdated in various ways.

I never owned an xbox before, though i have been thinking about it for a long time. I recieved on in trade on saturday, and i'm excited to get started. I'm not big on playing LIVE yet, as i do not wish to pay extra for something i won't use that often....this box is more for playing emulators without tying up my PC, using it as a media center, and playing backups/lan games...though i do want LIVE ability just in case.

after reading the tuts and FAQs on many subjects, i have figured out that i need to do the following:

1. Obtain an xbox that has not been on Live to make certain that the Marrige Theory is still intact.

2. Install a larger HD.

3. Decide between softmod and mod chip

Anyway, my problem is as such: i am now at least the 4th owner of this xbox....is there a simple way to find out if this box has been on live before? I've got some hard drives lying around, but i do not want to mess with the box until i know for sure that i can get on Live in the future if i need to.

Note that i have not even plugged this box in...i know it works as a friend has used it previously, but she never went live with it.

What does that have to do with the xbox? If you just throw in a new HDD, you will get an error code...as for running emulators you will need evox which is near impossible to find and you will need a new HDD.

Um.. Screw a bunch of that. Live blows balls, get a game with system link play it online for free. Like games are meant to be played on line.

2 yeah a hard drive would be a good upgrade. you will need a chip before you get the hard drive.

Evox is NOT hard to find. You can find it in several places do a search for "usual places"

You will also need slayers evox, you can find it around too..

None of this is "near impossible" "a killer" or for that matter out of anyones range you jsut have to research and read, it will take you a while, and no one will spoon feed you here but if you wnat to have a modded box and do all the wonderful things us modders do then go for it. You will find help here. You will also find a search. Use search first. then ask questions.

You will be ok man, dont think this all too much, if you read enough you will make *less* mistakes. Everyone makes them but hte fewer the better. I read for months how to mod an xbox before I did my first, and needless to say I still had not read enough, if yo uare a not prepared to learn all this, then roll over and shell out cash for someone else to do it. But I for one say that you will never know your xbox *entirely* unless you mod it yourself.

if this is correct, i need to figure out how to see if this xbox has ever been on Live before....if it has, i need to buy another EEPROM. if it has not, i'm good to go, and just need to install a bigger virgin hard drive.

The plan was to use one of Krayzie's installers to softmod via an exploit (SC) and install the larger hard drive as per the instructions given in the forums. After the new hard drive is properly set up, the system should be okay to get on live when a retail game is booted.

I know about the other methods of getting online. that isn't the point....i want to be able to use live in the future if need be (for example, if i tire of this xbox and decide to sell it, i can't have it banned for it's new owner, can i?).

Anyway, i'm not going to hit up the Usual places till such a time as all my questions are answered....i'm a newbie to XBox, but i'm a regular old school PS2-Scene member and i have kept up with some of the scene happenings here as well, so i know what i want...i just need to know some more advanced information before i plunge into this....my final goal is to be able to mod my friend's xboxes in the near future.

QUOTE(EverestX @ Jul 18 2005, 08:24 PM)

Um.. Screw a bunch of that. Live blows balls, get a game with system link play it online for free. Like games are meant to be played on line.

2 yeah a hard drive would be a good upgrade. you will need a chip before you get the hard drive.

Evox is NOT hard to find. You can find it in several places do a search for "usual places"

You will also need slayers evox, you can find it around too..

None of this is "near impossible" "a killer" or for that matter out of anyones range you jsut have to research and read, it will take you a while, and no one will spoon feed you here but if you wnat to have a modded box and do all the wonderful things us modders do then go for it. You will find help here. You will also find a search. Use search first. then ask questions.

You will be ok man, dont think this all too much, if you read enough you will make *less* mistakes. Everyone makes them but hte fewer the better. I read for months how to mod an xbox before I did my first, and needless to say I still had not read enough, if yo uare a not prepared to learn all this, then roll over and shell out cash for someone else to do it. But I for one say that you will never know your xbox *entirely* unless you mod it yourself.

Yes, it is entirely possible that you could go through a mess of bullshit to get your hard drive to work with a soft mod. Unless you can turn that softmod off you'll be gone off live. Secondly, it's usually easiest to use a softmod with a large hard drive if you ahve another xbox handy to aid in the process. And that box is chipped.

But yes you are correct it can be done, I tried that shit, and got fed up, you can jsut by a DOUX 2 for around $11... I would rather spend 11 dollars than fiddle with a box wor hours on end to accomplish something I could have done in 30 minutes with a chip.

To be honest man I dont use live, and if you are going to all this trouble jsut to have live that you wont use, that's redic. Yo ucan sell a modded box jsut fine that cant go on live. 3 out of 4 people I know with a box dont waste $10 a month to play games.

-- Dude all this is entirely possible, you can pull it off. Go with the gusto, -EvX-

yes, you can install a bigger HD with a softmod, and it's really not that hard as long as you know the difference between your left and right hands.

you can use a gamesave exploit to backup your eeprom, then make and xboxhdm disc with your eeprom and a UXE complete setup, format it, lock the HD, install it in the xbox.

or, the harder way. make an xboxhdm cd with UXE complete, hotswap the HD to your computer, reformat and install the mod. use the newly modified xbox to backup your eeprom, make NEW xboxhdm disc with eeprom in it. follow above.

the big difference between chipped and softmodded boxes is that you need to lock the HD using your eeprom BEFORE it will boot in your xbox. that's why you need to use xboxhdm and your computer before you can put it in the xbox. read up on xboxhdm for dummies in my sig.

you can use a softmod on live by coldbooting. no, you probably won't get banned. the chances of getting banned while coldbooting are about the same as getting banned with a disabled chip. make sure you're using a lifeblocking bios/patcher (UXE complete has one) and make sure your dashboard is up to date BEFORE YOU MOD! to make sure, pop in Halo2 or other new game and let it update. if it doesn't you're already up to date.

as for finding out if the drive has been on live before....not that i know of. unless you feel like calling bill up and asking him if he's got your xbox listed.

edit: if you're good at soldering, a duox2 is certainly a fairly cheap alternative. i'm not sure how people see it as being so much easier/less dangerous than softmodding because it's not. but oh well. there's also a gen4 chip out there that's like $20, but i forget the name of it. look around if you're interested.

i guess the big problem i have now is that i do not know if this xbox has been on live, and therefore, if i change out the hard drive, due to the marrige theory, it is possible that the box will be banned the moment it connects to live

can't risk that.....options for me seem to be limited to buying a new xbox, buying a used box that i know 100% was not on live, or buying a new eeprom.

is that correct?

being a PS2-scener, a chip was originally the way to go for me....lately though, i haven't seen very much in the way of benefits that a chip has over a decent softmod...

my soldering sucks, and i will not trust it my first xbox to it, so it seems that a solderless or soft mod solution are my choices for now. as for cost, i'd rather put the money into a bigger hard drive than into a chip....and any chip i get tends to be the latest/greatest sort of thing (my last chipped ps2 was a Matrix Infinity, which for me was the uberchip at the time).

I want to do this as an expiriment....i want to come up with a way to easily mod any xbox i come in contact with while making sure that live still works if it's wanted. I'd like to be able to have it all happen on a single dvd, and then to just update via ftp as new versions of apps come out...

Actually, just because something is on XBins doesn't mean its availible to everyone...i can not use IRC due to reasons i do not wish to get into....suffice it to say that ANY alternative to IRC for me is better.